AuthorTopic: Great Everest summit meeting (Read 7554 times)

By Jill Foster from The Daily Mirror Website, unfortunately there is no picture, but it is nice to read all the british Everest stories: "THEY are the Everest Summiteers - men and women who have stood on top of the world's highest mountain.It's 50 years since Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay first reached its summit on May 29, 1953 but since then, 62 Britons have followed in their footsteps.

The first - Dougal Haston, Doug Scott and Peter Boardman - climbed it on September 24, 1975. Their colleague Mick Burke died in the attempt.

The 29,035ft mountain has claimed at least 175 lives - one for every ten people who have successfully climbed it. Of the 62 Britons who have conquered her, eight are dead - including Alison Hargreaves, killed while on K2 three months after her Everest success.

Here, for the first time ever, 19 British climbers come together for an exclusive Daily Mirror photoshoot and tell us their stories of conquering the Big E...

1

Chris Mothersdale

CHRIS, 38, reached the summit via the North side on May 16, 2002. At 23,000ft he did the world's highest science lesson.

"Because I'm a science teacher I wanted to involve the children in my climb so I had a website set up and kids from all over the world followed my weekly reports and asked me questions. I had tears in my eyes on the summit - we'd worked so hard to get there."

2

Mark Warham

MARK, 41, reached the summit on May 23, 1997. He works for a bank and lives in London.

"I had two attempts at Everest. I had to abandon my first attempt in 1993 because of fluid on the lungs. It was frustrating but I knew I'd try again. The second time I didn't have any altitude problems. One of our team members got stuck overnight near the summit. He had some frostbite damage but he was OK."

3

David Hempleman-Adams

DAVID, 46, from Bath, reached the summit on the morning of October 9, 1993.

"I climbed it with a broken rib caused by a bad cough. It was my boyhood dream to climb Everest - I'd been climbing since I was 13 - and it's like a magnet. One of the guys died which was dreadful but Everest has a 10 per cent success rate and a 10 per cent death rate. I wasn't scared - I was too focused getting on with it."

4

Chris Brown

CHRIS, 56, from Thirsk in North Yorks, reached the summit on May 13, 1999 to raise funds to help schizophrenics.

"You can't describe the moment you reach the top. Each step brings you nearer to your dream. I actually cried on the last 30 yards - it was a very emotional moment.

"I spent about 45 minutes up there and felt like a matchstick person on top of the world."

5

Crag Jones

IN MAY 1995 Crag (Caradog), 44, from Chester, became the only Welsh person to have beaten the mountain.

"What struck me most was that I had climbed out of the Earth's atmosphere, a delicate gossamer lining. We'd run out of oxygen, but managed to scavenge bottles from the rubbish others left behind."

6

Graham Ratcliffe

Graham, 48, from Tyne and Wear, is the first Briton to climb Everest from both the North and South.

"EACH time I've gone up, it never enters my mind anything could go wrong. Standing on the summit makes you aware of your vulnerability - below is reality and life. I'd do it again - without oxygen."

7

Bear Grylls

BEAR, 28, from the Isle of White reached the summit on May 26, 1998, the youngest Briton ever to do it.

"AT 19,000ft I smashed the bones in my elbow and the pain was worsened by the intense cold. But reaching the summit was more than I ever imagined. I remember seeing the curvature of the Earth."

8

Jon Tinker

JON, 44, from York reached the top on October 10, 1993 with Babu Sherpa.

"EVEREST attracts a different sort of climber. The actual summit could be regarded as trivial because that last leg is only half an hour out of 10 weeks away from home. The people who did it in 1953 are truly amazing."

9

Andrew Salter

ANDREW, 41, reached the summit on May 16, 2000. He is the World Record holder for the fastest ascent of the highest summits on each continent.

"THE doctors said I'd die because of a pulmonary oedema on an earlier climb. But it was my dream. I'm not a religious person, but it was almost an ethereal experience."

10

Bronco Lane

FORMER SAS soldier Michael (Bronco) reached the summit on May 16, 1976, with "Brummie" Stokes.

"WE arrived at the summit in a snow storm but knew we were there as the slopes fell away in every direction. On the descent, as a result of frostbite, we lost all our toes and some finger tips."

11

Jonathan Pratt

Jonathan, 43, from London, reached the summit on May 15, 1992. Once a professional climber, he now works for a bank.

"IF I'm honest, climbing Everest wasn't that big a deal. It was a very simple climb. The way I see it, the first ascent was 1953 and I climbed in 1992. Things move on."

12

Eric Blakeley

ERIC, 38, from Jersey made it on May 23, 1997 and went on to complete the Seven Summits challenge.

"Everest was the hardest mountain I've ever climbed. If the weather is fine, it's not technically that difficult, but I knew that more people are killed on the way down than on the way up."

19

Neil Laughton

Neil, 39, from South London reached the summit on May 26 1998. He plans to take the first wheelchair user to base camp later this year.

"I'D been on Everest in May 1996, when a huge storm killed eight people. It was a horrendous night, so naturally I was very nervous about going back. I still have the mental scars but life has to go on and I like to think that you learn by experiences such as that."

18

Polly Murray

POLLY, 29, from Perth reached the summit on May 16, 2000, the first Scottish woman to reach the top.

"I WOULD never do Everest again. It was never my dream, I got the opportunity to do with with some good friends for not a lot of money so I decided to go for it. It's not a particularly interesting climb. It's absolutely stunning, but there are hundreds of other more beautiful mountains."

17

Stuart Peacock

STUART, 30, from Cheshire reached the summit on May 16, 2002 He filmed his climb and it is available on www.everestvideo.co.uk

"It was a couple of days after reaching the summit that it really sunk in. My dad had passed away in the January and it was at this point it finally hit me that he wasn't going to be there to celebrate with the rest of my family when I returned. Words really can't describe how I felt."

16

Sundeep Dhillon

Sundeep, 33, from Wimbledon, South London reached the summit on May 25, 1998. A doctor, he is the youngest person to complete the Seven Summits.

"I started climbing after my parents died when I was 13. They'd done everything right but still died young so, I thought, there must be more to life - and I took up mountaineering.

"I'm planning to do it again without oxygen - I didn't suffer, my body does pretty well at altitude."

15

Geoffrey Stanford

Geoffrey, 32, from Greenwich,London reached the summit on May 16, 2002. It was his second attempt.

"There is a valley into which all the snow which falls on the mountain, flies down and compacts into a glacier. It's called the Ice Fall which was pretty hairy and moves around a lot so I was very relieved to get back down. Most accidents used to happen there, but nowadays the Sherpas keep the route as safe as possible."

13

Sandy Allan

Sandy, 47, from Inverness, reached the summit on May 23, 2001. He is now a full-time guide.

"The climb was harder than we thought and I was impressed we made it. We met a Frenchman at the summit whose hand I shook before he snowboarded down the mountain. It was amazing."

14

Rebecca Stephens

On May 17, 1993, Rebecca, 41, with Sherpas Ang Passang and Kami Pcherng, became the first British woman to climb Everest.

"We had the summit completely to ourselves, and the view was intoxicating. It felt absurd that here I was on the top of the highest mountain in the world."

« Last Edit: May 16 2003, 15:35 by 7summits »

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"He who climbs upon the highest mountains laughs at all tragedies, real or imaginary." -- Friedrich Nietzsche